Maps from Planet offer available in single player?

[Daze90 0]

I was just wondering, when the planet offer ends for good, will the maps that only were included in the planet offer, be available to single players for free? Or will we have to buy them?

[Stef42 0]

I guess they will include these maps on March 8th. 25 maps are just to less in comparison with the 50 maps of the Planet Offer.

[Asheroo 53]

A few quotes from the FAQ...

What will become of existing PO-specific content, such as avatar mode, Megastructures or specific maps? What about already released content packs (Old England buildings, bus system...)?

The avatar mode is tied to the online game, and it will disappear with it. The Bus will be included in the new solo version. The Blueprints gameplay will be redesigned and retrofitted to be part of Cities XL 2011. Actual megastructures will be spread through multiple paid content packs.quote>

Does the end of PO mean any kind of changes to solo gameplay? (e.g: more map slots, ability to trade between cities...)

The core solo gameplay will not change a lot but it will see many improvements in Cities XL 2011.

The trade system will be included in Cities XL 2011 so it will become possible to trade between your own cities and specialise them the same way you would do in Planet gameplay. It will also enable you to use Blueprints and build Megastructures. The current map selection system will be redone in favour of a planet system; it will also include 10 more maps.quote>

So, some of the exclusive maps will come with the content packs, but 10 of them will be free with CXL2011.

[Winter Dragon 0]

Originally posted by: Daze90

I was just wondering, when the planet offer ends for good, will the maps that only were included in the planet offer, be available to single players for free? Or will we have to buy them?quote>

Yes you can do this now. There are 3 or 4 tutorials I've read but I found them confusing.

This is how I do it: 

1. In the solo game create a new map where you want your online city to appear. The map type does not have to be the same as the online city, nor does it have to have the same name. Think of the new map as a placeholder, your online city will appear here later on. You don't need to build anything on the new map, just save and exit.

2. Navigate to your upload folder. For Windows XP I found it under  "C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Local Settings\Application Data\Monte Cristo\Cities XL\upload". In this folder you will find every save file of every city you've created in Planet Offer including all the ones you deleted. If you've worked on one city 95 times, you will find 95 versions of that city. But how do you know which file is for which city?

Example: cxl_000616bd_0000095.sav

The part in yellow between the 3rd zero and the second underscore is the city's ID. If this ID is the same in several other files it means all those saves belong to the same city. The part in green at the end of the filename is how many changes have been made to the city since it was created. Some of these might be letters like 0c.sav or 0d, I think the numbers are the more recent. Date modified also confirms which save of a particular city is most recent.

3. Copy the .sav file you know or think is your city over to your solo folder. In windows xp it should be   "C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Local Settings\Application Data\Monte Cristo\Cities XL\live\*mayorname*\solo" You will now have the .sav file in the same folder as the .sol and .dds files.

cxl_000616bd_0000095.sav (the online city)

solosaveregionxmapy.dds (the new solo game city thumbnail.)

solosaveregionxmapy.sol (the new solo game city in step 1') < delete this!

4. Rename the file of the online city so it has the same name and format as the file you just deleted. Start the offline game. The place you created the city in step 1 will still say 0 population and 400,000c. Don't panic, just load the city. It will update the correct statistics once it loads the city for the first time.

I have converted 3 online cities using this method.

* 1 city has working buses, but you can't add or change them until March 8th

* 1 city has two mega structures, but unless you finish them before planet offer ends, they will remain unfinished until MC adds mega structures to the solo game.

* Any buildings from the old england pack will appear, but like buses and megastructures you won't be able to add new ones until further content is developed for the solo game.

[Garek Maxwell 1]

Originally posted by: Daze90 Or will we have to buy them?quote>

Now there's an idea! Turn the Planet Offer into an online store that offers you things you can purchase like maps or modes of transportation!

Monte Cristo could easily redesign and set up an new system similar to EA's sims 3 online store where you pay real money for shirt pixels!

[Stef42 0]

Transfering savegames from PO to SP will only work until the PO ends. After that, if a transfered city is deleted (which has a PO map) those maps will be lost.

[Winter Dragon 0]

@Stef42

Why wouldn't it work after PO ends?

[Stef42 0]

It will still work after the end, but if you have build your city and deleted it because it's full, not to your liking etc. I won't return at Planet View..(I guess) as a empty spot.

[Winter Dragon 0]

With respect I don't think you're looking outside of the game when you speak of not being able to recover deleted cities, because you most definately can recover them. I've done it many times.

When you delete a city in planet view it's deleting the .sol file in the solo folder. However that's all it does, the .dds file remains for the deleted city as does a .bak file. Renaming the .bak file to .sol will recover the deleted city and it will appear the next time you start the game.

Also, you could recover the online city again by retracing the steps above or another tutorial and get the city back that way.

[City Planner 121]

Originally posted by: Winter Dragon

Yes you can do this now. There are 3 or 4 tutorials I've read but I found them confusing.

This is how I do it: 

quote>

Excuse me for asking, but are you explaining how to convert the planet offer saved cities to solo cities, or are you explaining how to actually get the maps that are in planet offer t show up in solo play?

I ask because, sure I'd like to play the on some of the maps that are on the planet offer in my solo game and I don't have access to the saved games when I was playing on the trial of the planet offer when I first got CXL since that was on the old Vista partition which is now gone from my computer.  So I assume if you are explaining how to get the planet offer maps to show up in the solo player game than what I would need to do is to find somebody that has some saved games from the planet offer and have them share it with me to get those maps to show up in my solo player game, is this correct?

[Winter Dragon 0]

Yes that's correct. The saved city would be a blank map with 400,000c and 0 population.

[Daze90 0]

Thanks for the answers, everyone.

 

But now there's one more thing I'm wondering. In the folder "Paks" there are lots of pak files for maps, and some of those maps are PO only. I don't have PO, but they're still there. So is there a way to "activate" them so they're available for single players? 

[Asheroo 53]

There are ways to activate them but that would be hacking.

[Daze90 0]

I know, but I want them so badly. 

[Winter Dragon 0]

I have 16 of the 18 unique planet offer maps ready to share if I get a yes from MC. They are all in .sav format and would need to be converted to replace some of your solo maps.

The problem is these maps might be used in Cities XL 2011, so I can't freely distribute them without expressed  permission. A support ticket was sent to MC last week and they said they forwarded my request to Gregory 'who will reply soon shortly'. It's been almost 7 days now and there has been no reply yet, so I might send a followup ticket asking if any decisions have been made.

 

Final Edit.